Mountain Musings

Happy Quilting Day ~ 2017

In honor of Worldwide Quilting Day I stopped by my favorite quilt shop yesterday, Patchwork Plus in Dayton, and purchased some basting pins and Aurifil thread. Actually, I had a $25 freebie gift certificate from the shop which was expiring this weekend, and it was a case of "use it or lose it!"

What I'm sewing today...my second Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt. The first one I made in 2009 and was a birthday gift for my then one-year old grandson, Ethan.

You can read about my finding the Caterpillar fabric at our local quilt shop in a previous post, and I was so excited that I bought enough to make a quilt for each of my four children's first child...and also ordered the Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle to go with each quilt.This quilt sandwich is already basted with three layers, and today I'll be finishing up the quilting. It is so colorful and fun to work on...and especially when I know a darling grandchild will be the recipient of a quilt sewn by Granny Deb:While I was browsing in Patchwork Plus yesterday, of all things...I spotted this Very Hungry Caterpillar bag!!! This would be perfect for gifting the quilt in, right?!

Unfortunately, I found out the bag wasn't for sale and was just an example to show what else you could do with the fabric...and of course, they sold the bag patterns. But I'm not a garment or accessory sewer, so making this bag is a little out of my league. Maybe if I contacted the owner, she would make an exception.

The backing on my caterpillar quilt happens to be the same as the center panel fabric on the bag above. I love that it says Very Hungry Caterpillar on it!

While at the shop I also picked up this brochure about Following the Barn Quilt Trail. I was immediately interested!:

So in honor of Worldwide Quilting Day today, I will be printing off my ticket to go hear Suzi Parron speak about her travels all over the country and to introduce her new book Following the Barn Quilt Trail. Fun!

Well, since it's Quilting Day, I'd better wrap up this post and get started on some sewing! How will you celebrate Quilting Day?

~Deb

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Road Trips ~ Family Encouragement Weekend 2017 in NC and Visiting Sweet Andrew in GA

Last week we headed to Murphy, North Carolina, to attend the annual F.E.W. conference (Family Encouragement Weekend) hosted by the Neely Team.

This was the first time we had attended this particular conference in NC since it's a long 7-hour drive from here in Virginia. Seeing as Sarah, Eric, and Andrew in Georgia live close enough for a quick visit after the conference, we thought this was a great opportunity to see them.

Years ago we attended a couple of the F.E.W. conferences held in northern Virginia and hosted by the Wilkes Team. Here are the links on the blog for those conferences: Family Encouragement Weekend ~ 2010 and Family Encouragement Weekend ~ 2011.

We also listened to special music presented by the orchestra as seen below, and many young people who came to the conference brought their instruments to play together...I didn't get a photo of that entire group. Hannah wished she had known to bring her flute to join them. We enjoyed all the great hymns during the two-day conference: One of the main advantages to attending conferences like this is the fellowship with other families. Here's Hannah with our dear friends (and Sarah's sisters-in-law) Abby and Emma: The ladies' Saturday morning devotional by Mrs. Staddon included fruit, cookies, and tea as we listened to her talk on Mary, Martha, and Hospitality: Tom and Greg talked together during the conference: And, of course, the afternoon included outdoor activities for the young people as shown below: Hannah joined the group and enjoyed the fresh air and camaraderie: The older young adults helped direct the outdoor games while the ladies inside prepared the lunch meal: We enjoyed all the messages, singing, and fellowship times throughout the weekend. My favorite times were the prayer group sessions each day where we gathered as four or five families in a group and introduced ourselves and shared prayer requests with the group. The dads around the group prayed for the requests, and we were able to get to know several families better as a result.

One final singing picture of the Neely, Staddon, and Wilkes families:

After the conference ended Saturday evening, we were back on the road headed to Georgia where sweet little Andrew awaited his Granny Deb to give him lots of hugs and kisses. :)

And here are sweet Andrew's parents, Eric and Sarah. It was so good to see everyone again!Hannah had a great time entertaining her little nephew: And Grampa Tom enjoyed himself, too! How do you like Andrew's camouflage cloth dipe?! Sarah is a cloth diaper lover from long ago when she made tons of them for her future babies.For those of you who have been praying for Andrew, he's come a long way since birth! He continues to need prayer for some issues he's still facing. As you can see, he's still on feeding tubes and just beginning to learn to eat. So many prayers have been answered for this little munchkin!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. He's such an adorable 10 1/2 month old... always smiling and a genuinely happy baby: I can't wait to see him again!

~Deb

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Recipes From My Road Trip

As a follow-up to my Quilty Weekend Road Trip post, I wanted to share a few recipes that were part of the weekend. Isn't it always so much fun when you can bring home a new recipe from someplace? I think so!

As an example....remember last spring when my sister and I traveled to Arkansas on our Sister Trip? We brought home a delicious chicken salad recipe and a cookie recipe we enjoyed in P. Allen Smith's kitchen...unfortunately, I couldn't post that particular recipe since it's copyrighted in his cookbook. But the recipes below I can post.

First Recipe:

When my friend Christine and I ate at Center Street Grill last week, I ordered their Ham and BLT Sliders and the Soup of the Day which was Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup...mildly spicy: I mentioned to one of my neighbors whom I visited right afterwards that I just loved that soup. Anne told me she had the recipe and made a copy right then and handed it to me. I'll post her hand-written copy below....I think I'd add something extra to spice it up a bit when I make it.  Second Recipe:

That same night after enjoying homemade pizza at my friend Chris' house, she brought out a beautiful platter of cookies and said they were Lisa Bongean's Self-Frosting Oatmeal cookies which she had recently posted on her blog! They were excellent!

I made some this week as shown below but, unfortunately, had more of a fail than a success...both in looks and taste! But I'll try again soon...because I have a Cookie Monster living here who not only gave me this cookie jar, but he would also like me to keep that cookie jar FULL! Third Recipe:

Chris always serves the most delicious breakfasts when I visit her! Here's a Cranberry Nut Dessert recipe that she served for breakfast one morning last week. I'm going to try this recipe, too! Hopefully, you can read this: 

 Fourth Recipe:

For dinner one evening Chris had planned to make Chicken Piccata. This is a new recipe for me. It calls for a jar of brined capers...something I've never purchased in my life! 

As it turned out, we were both so tired from late nights and the quilt show that we opted for eating out instead of making this meal. But...I have the recipe to try sometime.

I took a photo with my phone (what an easier way to copy down a recipe these days!), but you can also click the link above....same recipe:

If anyone has a good link you'd like to share of a new recipe you've tried recently, please do so in the comments. I'd love to know about it!

~Deb

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save